Star Wars Casting Isn’t Done; There’s Still Room for Lupita Nyong’o

Hold on to your space buns, the Star Wars casting isn’t done yet. Though he didn’t explicitly say so in yesterday’s announcement, most people assumed that when J.J. Abrams listed out “the cast of Star Wars,” that meant he was done with casting. Not so! According to The Hollywood Reporter, there is another Skywalker. Or, dare we hope, Calrissian? Star Wars is still looking for another female to round out the cast, leading many to speculate that this is the role that both Lupita Nyong’o and British actress Maisie Richardson-Sellers were in the running for.

This announcement may address some of the concerns raised yesterday about the lack of roles for both women and non-white actors in the new Star Wars. Our Richard Lawson wrote:

Looking at the new list, it’s hard not to notice something dismaying:
Only one woman, newcomer Daisy Ridley, is in the new lineup. By our
count, that’s eleven principals who are men and only two who are
women. And there are only two non-white people, both men, on the list.
Couldn’t they have done better?

Even if this as-yet uncast role goes to a non-white woman, the cast will still be predominately male and predominately white. Despite Princess Leia’s admirably tough character, as many pointed out yesterday, there are only three women with names and speaking roles in the original trilogy. But we’ve made some progress since long, long ago in that galaxy far, far away, and it’s not unreasonable for modern science-fiction fantasy fans to expect more equal representation. In a post-Buffy and Starbuck world, one sassy princess just won’t cut it anymore.

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